RIYADH: The Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones, known as MODON, revealed that it has successfully evaluated 58 factories using the international Smart Industry Readiness Index.
The SIRI index, owned by the International Centre for Industrial Transformation, is the only index approved by the World Economic Forum to measure the adoption rates of industrial facilities for the applications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). 4IR largely involves four specific technologies: High-speed mobile internet, artificial intelligence and automation, the use of big data analytics, and cloud technology.
INCIT is an independent, nongovernment institute founded to spearhead the transformation of global manufacturing. It directs the 4IR journeys of manufacturers, and supports the global rise of smart manufacturing.
Qusai Al-Abdul Karim, MODON’s director of marketing and corporate communications, confirmed that this success comes as a culmination of the authority’s efforts to keep pace with developments in the global industrial sector.
Abdullah Alghamdi, president of Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, said at a Saudi 4IR conference held last year, that the impact of the 4IR is expected to be massive, with non-oil gross domestic product anticipated to increase by more than 4 percent from 2017 to 2030, generating SR1 trillion ($266 billion) in new revenues.